


The Taste of Anticipation

by Dana



Series: Life on Mars Drabbles [73]
Category: Life on Mars (UK)
Genre: Community: lifein1973, Drabble Collection, Gen, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-24
Updated: 2015-05-24
Packaged: 2018-04-07 22:01:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 407
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4279506
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dana/pseuds/Dana
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>How he survived it, there's just no telling.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Taste of Anticipation

**Author's Note:**

> [LifeIn1973](http://lifein1973.dreamwidth.org/) Friday drabble challenge #324 – Wish
> 
> Kind of intended as a bit of follow up to [this](http://archiveofourown.org/works/2771588), [this](http://archiveofourown.org/works/2771576), [this](http://archiveofourown.org/works/2953061) and [this](http://archiveofourown.org/works/2953076).

Relief

He wakes but he must be dead, _surviving_ having been such a feeble wish. Gene's there, stirring awake, but Sam hardly sees him – jerking up, ripping the IV from his arm, the heart monitor beeping and shrieking. He's free to move so he does, too much too soon. Gene's there to catch him as his legs, evidently made of rubber, buckle beneath him.

Fighting to stand the way he'd fought to survive, Sam laughs, blinks, _breathes_. 'I'm alive.'

'That you are, Sam... that you are.'

Sam, sick with sudden relief, _snaps_. Gene, steadfast, holds him as he sobs.

—————

Said and Unsaid

'There's something you're not telling me.'

'Not much to say, Sammy-boy – it's a miracle you're alive. Should have bled out, only you didn't.'

'What's the reason, Guv?'

'Bloody hell, Tyler – don't ask me. Must mean you're too stubborn to stay dead.'

Sam (pale as a ghost, half-drugged, maybe finally _completely_ out of his mind) laughs, just like a loon.

'What's so funny, Gladys?' Gene snaps: Sam's reaction is inappropriate, at the very least. Still, should Gene complain? After he'd wished and even _prayed_ , to see Sam alive. It's a second miracle, hearing him laugh.

Sam shrugs. 'Just... because it's true.'

—————

What Silence Says

'… he's dead?'

'As a doornail,' Gene sighs, takes a drag off his fag. Sam huffs a breathy laugh, leans his head against his hand. 'Body's still on the slab.'

'…oh. I wish...'

Gene blinks. 'You want to see the bastard, don't you?'

Can't read that look, what passes over Sam's face – there's misery, yes, but something harder as well: something inexplicable, and whatever it might mean, at least Gene knows that it's completely _Sam_. Gene sighs, crushes his cigarette out. 'Suppose that silence means you do.'

Sam frowns. 'I just... never did get a good look at him, Guv.'

—————

Less Than Expected

'This isn't...'

'What?'

'This isn't what I expected.'

He stares at the body on the slab, the pale cheeks, the closed eyes. He lied to Gene just to have a chance to see the man's body: Sam already knew what the man's face looked like. Of course, as he'd tormented Sam, killing him slice by slice, it was _Sam's_ own face he wore. It had felt real, but Sam should've known it wasn't possible. Still, he wishes... what does he wish? Not to go back.

'Does it help?'

Sam almost shakes his head, nods at the last minute. 'I... yeah.'


End file.
